“Cold War literature suggests that MIRVs are first strike weapons and could be strategically destabilizing”

She added: “The United States realizes these threats and is working towards a robust missile defense system.”

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April 12, 1981 launch at Pad 39A of STS-1, just seconds past 7 a.m., carries astronauts John Young and Robert Crippen into an Earth orbital mission scheduled to last for 54 hours, ending with unpowered landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

“Cold War literature suggests that MIRVs are first strike weapons and could be strategically destabilizing”

Debalina Ghoshal

Last year, the US Missile Defense Agency handed out contracts to Raytheon, Lockheed-Martin and Boeing to develop the new state-of-the-art MOKV.

But one of the major challenges faced by the companies, is making a defence system that can tell the difference between real bombs and decoys.

There are fears balloons that look as though they have a hydrogen bomb on board could be literally blasted out of the sky.

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John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, told Seeker that the current “Kill Vehicles” are the size of a toaster.

He explained that the missiles would actually be destroyed beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.

The impact would be so huge it would send debris further into the atmosphere where it would burn up.

The US military hopes to be testing the first prototypes of the defence weapons as early as 2018.